Woody’s Burgers has taken over the old spot for Bangin’ Burgers which closed down last year. My co-workers and I visited recently for our weekly lunch outing since I wanted to see how this new place stacked up.
Woody’s Burgers is originally from Palm Springs – though their website doesn’t seem to make any mention of their new location here in San Diego. The logo is all the same, too – so either they don’t feel like updating their website or maybe they’re making a new site for their location? As a web-person, I think about these things. Also: I totally judge places by their website. Can’t be helped!
Walking into Woody’s Burgers for the first time, I felt like they didn’t really change much from the old location. A little bit paint, a new logo and the removal of the “salad/sides” bar is about all that really happened. The booths/tables are all the same, there’s still a bar/pool area and a very open “I used to be a warehouse!” feeling. There looked to be a little stage in-progress, possibly for some late night entertainment?
The menu here was pretty similar to Bangin’ Burgers – burgers are stand alone and do not come with sides. My cohorts and I wrangled up some burgers for ourselves and shared a couple of sides.
[woody’s original cheeseburger with bacon – $6.45 + $.95 cents for bacon]
I got something fairly standard – a cheeseburger. With bacon. Cause I like bacon. A lot.
This came with an angus beef patty, butter leaf lettuce, slices of raw onion, tomato, melted cheddar cheese and “Woody’s sauce”. “Woody’s sauce” is code for Thousand Island Dressing, in case you were wondering.
The burger patty itself was good – the meat was very juicy and well seasoned and cooked just right. It was actually… almost a little *too* juicy as the burger started to run all over my hands. I felt like I had to use five napkins to sop up all of the juices and even then I still felt like it was still all over me…
The bun was a brioche bun which did not stand a chance against the juice-monster burger. My bottom bun quickly got soggy and gross and kind of disintegrated on me… a heftier bun is really in order here – something that can take the juiciness and combat it instead of it getting all over my hands.
[basket of french fries – $2]
I got a side of french fries for us to all share. Kind of on the small side for a basket, if you ask me. They weren’t really anything special – they kind of had that crispy outer coating on the fries like the ones at Burger King.
[basket of onion rings – $2.95]
Lauren got the basket of onion rings for us to share.
If you like eating buckets of grease, then you will love these.
Otherwise… yeah. No.
I took a bite and all I could taste was the oil. It was kind of like oil-flavored onion rings with a hint of onion in there somewhere. I suspect these were cooked at the wrong temperature to result in a flavor like this.
I ate a second one in the dim hope that maybe it was just that first one that was bad… but nope. No such luck.
Let’s see what my cohorts ate!
[western burger – $6.95]
Matt got the Western Burger which has an onion ring (oh noes), coleslaw, tomato and barbeque sauce.
[jalapeno burger – $6.95]
David got the appropriately named “Jalapeno Burger” which has pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, tomato and a “spicy sauce”. He said this was definitely spicy. I would not touch this burger with any implement available to me.
[pretend there’s a hamburger here]
Lauren got a hamburger which looked very, very close to mine – but you know, minus the cheese and bacon, so I have no photo of it. But I mention it anyway just because.
We paid for our food afterwards, which I found a little strange since we had to go up to the counter to order it. I didn’t understand why we didn’t just pay off the bat, but it is what it is.
I went to the bathroom to wash my hands properly with soap after our lunch and even when we got back to the office, I still felt like I had grease all over my hands.
Phantom greasiness is so weird.
Woody’s Burgers
7070 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 695-9986
The rings looked pretty good, too bad they were greasy! I tried Bang’n Burgers twice or so. I should maybe give these guys a try soon. A well toasted bun often helps some with the juicy patty issue. I like the added texture it brings too.
Hi Dennis – Yeah, it was really a shame that the rings were so greasy! The bun was toasted on the top, but I honestly couldn’t tell if it was toasted on the bottom, too, since my bottom bun got soggy pretty quickly – so maybe that’s an indicator it wasn’t toasted on the bottom?
My mouth is all greasy just reading about those onion rings… blech. Greasy onion rings are the worst. Drippy burgers are also not my favorite. We went to BGR the other night (to use Travis’ free birthday burger coupon!) and I swear every time I picked up my buger I used a napkin to wipe it all off my hands. But, at least you got to eat some bacon!
“It’s too juicy!” seems like a silly compliant until it’s running all over your hands and making you feel like everything you touch is made of grease. BGR does freebie birthdays? Either I forgot, or they just started doing that. Totally gonna sign up!
I actually kind of liked Bangin Burgers and am a little sad they closed. They made some good tots. Definitely going to check out Woody’s since it’s in my ‘hood. Have you tried the burger at Urban Solace? I think it’s one of my favorite burgers in SD.
I also hate burgers that drip down your hands and wrists. I get that a juicy burger is a good burger, but a dripping one is just gross. BGR’s burger is way too drippy too, but man their fries are good.
I had mixed experiences at Bangin Burgers, but I liked it well enough. I tried to Google why they closed – but no such luck. I just remember it was very “all of a sudden”. Jake had the burger at Urban Solace and I had a bite and it was tasty. They’ve got good stuff there! My favorite burger in SD is still at the Pearl Hotel… mmm.
Boo that the bun didn’t stand up to the burger. What a disappointment. Sounds like you had to use a lot of napkins between the grease and the juicy burger.
I did have to use a lot of napkins. And wash my hands twice. And then I used lotion and anti-bacterial stuff to combat the greasy feeling that would not leave my skin!
That sux that Bangin’ Burgers closed. I never had a chance to go there but wanted to since I had a coupon from that book I buy every year.
That’s a lot of jalapenos on that Western burger. A little too much. Sorry you had to deal with that greasiness!
Aw, I guess you missed out on the peanut butter hehe. Jake liked it… it wasn’t my thing, but it was interesting. I think I’d give this place another shot and hope their onion rings improve and less greasiness would be nice.
We would love for you guys to come back in and give us a second chance. Some changes have been made in the kitchen, we offer half off beer for happy hour every day of the week from 330-7. Skip traffic, grab a 3 dollar Sculpin and come hang with us. Lunch on us and your feedback of course is highly valued.
Rhiannon
Woodys Burgers
Hi Rhiannon – I’d be happy to come check it out again. I’ll email you!